Flick Picks: Stories We Tell, Turbo and One Direction: This is Us
BE MOVED wih Stories We Tell, laugh like a child again with Pixar's latest production Turbo or join excited teens for One Direction: This is Us.
What movies to watch this weekend with Leigh Paatsch.
DRILLING A TRUTH TO FIND A FEELING
STORIES WE TELL is a unique and dynamic documentary with a difference. Actress Sarah Polley steps behind the camera to tell the life story of her late mother Diane, who died of cancer in her early 40s. The plurality of the movie's title is intentional: Polley invites a vast array of family members and friends to relate Diane's biography as they remember it. The differences between their recollections become quite pronounced are varying stages in the film, and Polley bravely examines all of them. Sometimes she pays a heavy emotional cost for doing so. At other times, those involved in the movie are forced to confront (and perhaps, forever change) their own interpretation of the ever-mysterious Diane. The doco is narrated by Michael, Diane's second husband, an intriguing and solitary presence who could have been a worthy subject of a similar film himself. See this extraordinary project with as little advance knowledge as possible, and one of the most lasting film experiences of the year awaits.
YOU'VE GOT SNAIL
In most states, the school holidays are now officially underway. The best cover-all-bases choice for the 10-and-under crowd is the zippy cartoon adventure TURBO. Here we have the stirring story of Theo (voiced by Ryan Reynolds), the fastest snail to ever contest the Indianapolis 500. As you may have gathered, Theo is no ordinary snail. A freak accident has left him with a 300 km/hr surge of acceleration. This genial animated adventure is, quite simply, one very cruisy joy ride for younger viewers. The standard of animation is probably a few cylinders shy of Pixar's V8 visuals for their Cars movies, but still convey the motion-blurred adrenalin rush of racetrack conditions with great aplomb. Not exactly a classic, but still effectively entertaining enough to leave all other animated vehicles trailing in its wake in coming weeks.
THIS IS THEM ... KIND OF
The big-ticket item in Australian cinemas this weekend is ONE DIRECTION: THIS IS US, a piffling 3D concert doco about five young men who have temporarily harnessed the power to make many millions of young women scream. Filmed during the final phase of a punishing global touring schedule that only wrapped a few months ago, This is Us hosts a predictably sanitised celebration of One Direction's extraordinary success to date. You want deep and meaningful insights into life as it is lived at the eye of the One Direction hurricane? Not gonna happen. You want the lads gabbing about how much they owe it all to their mums, their dads and their fans? Would you mind ever so much if they took their shirts off every now and then? Is gonna happen. {General release}
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